[Chris Alger]

This isn't what I'm talking about. Iraq was subject to sanctions only because of the Gulf War, not because Saddam is a dictator with WMD -- there are several of those. The sanctions were barely multilateral, never enjoying much support outside the security council. They were ostensibly designed to eliminate WMD, not to reform Iraq's poltical system, and predictably tightened Saddam grip on his country. Given the tepid attempts to get Saddam to dissarm during the 1990's it appears that the sanctions were more designed to wreck Iraq's economy and infrastructure as a lesson to those countries that consider crossing the west, especially the U.S.

I was referring to a system by which the UN sets minimum standards for political decency along the lines of the genocide convention and enforces it through the General Assembly. It's completely utopian because the major powers, especially the US, would never consent to it.